The Future is Here: The Artificial Leaf


Oft I have been perplexed by the energy crisis that is going to hit us. Oft I have dreamt of a device to produce oxygen from water.

In my most stimulating episodes of daydreaming, I used to dream of a large factory which would be equipped with genetically engineered micro-organisms. These little machines would be cultivated in large scale to produce oxygen from water. But I was not satisfied. I did not day dream about chemical equations. I was not aware of technological advances which would make it possible to create oxygen from water without having to be plugged into an energy source. My aims were inclined to oxygen production and clean energy.

The concept of biodiesel enthused me for a short period of time. But here again, I could not figure out its economic and practical viability. With a global crisis of agricultural land and food production demands outweighing supply I was hard pressed to think out an innovative way of biodiesel production. I thought of ‘vertical plantation’, where the Jatropha plant (producing biodiesel) could be grown on terrace plantations which did not spread horizontally, but rose vertically. Still, the idea did not seem convincing and economically viable. It seemed high maintenance. I failed, as an innovator.

But, while I was busy dreaming, some scientists were busy working on an ‘artificial leaf’ concept. The concept consisted of making a catalyst that would be able to dissociate water into its components hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature in neutral pH and most importantly without the need of an energy source to drive the reaction. John Turner of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado had developed an artificial leaf a decade ago. But it was made of rare, expensive metals and had a very short half-life, thus proving to be an impractical concept.

Then came Daniel Nocera, a chemist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who discovered a oxygen evolving catalyst formed, on an indium tin oxide electrode, from cobalt and phosphorus - both cheap, abundant elements, the finding which he published in Science. And now, he has successfully come up with a ‘practical’ artificial leaf. His device is the size of a poker card but thinner, made of silicon electronics and catalysts. Placed in a single gallon of water in bright sunlight, the device according to Nocera could produce enough electricity to supply a house for a day.

Reading the news came as a relief to me. It was an answer to my ‘energy anxiety’. Inventions of such importance and practicality give us inspiration to make discoveries which mean something to man.

In the endless march towards the light at the end of the tunnel, being aware of the light years which it has crossed to reach, like destiny’s prodigal children running wild, we will forever hope in our chronic optimism, to reach the source, the Holy Grail. But, leaving aside the magnificent delusions and surreal dreams provoked by scientific thought, an interesting turn of events threatens to make the ‘artificial leaf’ a household name.

Cause, when we will have crossed half a century on earth, the petrol pumps running dry and the water table turned saline, killing off the last remaining trees in our surroundings, we will have to turn to the inevitable installing of trees growing on artificial leaves, to provide energy for the next generation of rebels, helping them too without any hindrance, to speak their minds and follow their dreams in a way most befitting the human nature.

Dwaipayan Adhya

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